In the market for a new fish finder for ice fishing

[Marko]

Hey guys how is it going. I am in the market for a new fish finder and i am thinking of picking up Lowrance Elite 4x Ice machine.
I was reading some reviews and one guy mentioned how he couldn't see fish at about 100 feet.
Does anybody here have one and if so are you guys happy with it? How easy is it to set up and use?
Thanks
Marko

[smitty55]

Heya Marko. I just picked one up that was a combo pack and came with a suction cup mount for summer usage. Plus it had a $50 rebate so that helped.
With 2100 watts power that unit won't have any problems at 100 ft. That guy must have not had it setup right and probably on wide beam. I read one post where after getting real good at tuning his unit he could see his jig at 130ft. Now if you only want this unit for ice fishing many guys will tell you to get a dedicated flasher because it's better, but the 4X has a vertical amplitude bar that is real time and does the same thing as a flasher. Just not in a circle. You can also split screen it with your sonar image. Flasher mode is mostly useless. They claim it has 1/2" separation which is great. Depends on your budget too of course, a good flasher will run you a lot more than what I got for $229.
Here's a link to a post on that machine. http://www.oodmag.com/community/showthr ... asher-help

Cheers

[smitty55]

Here's another link. The more opinions you get the better. http://www.oodmag.com/community/showthr ... t=Elite-4X

Cheers

[Randy L]

I bought the Elite 4 and have been using it for a little less than a month. It took a little tweaking but now think it is a great tool. I have used it right next to both a Vex and a Bird with no problems. So far I have only used it for walleye fishing on the Rideau but I can easily see the bottom hugging walleyes come in and tell the difference between them and perch. I guess the real test will be when using it for crappies to see if it will stack up against the flashers that my buddies use.

[Marko]

Hey guys.
Thank you for the replies.
I much prefer a fish finder over a flasher. Few of my friends have flashers and i personally would much rather see an image on a screen then few lines flashing around.
I dont mind playing with a fish finder as long as it has a factory settings reset haha.
I`ve got few sail gift certificates, i might go check to see if they have it.
Lake trout fishing in blind is no fun

[Jason Daoust]

I bought the elite 4x at the beginning of last season and got it over a marcum or vex just because I can use for back lakes. I fished with a buddy late last year with a flasher and I would buy the flasher over a finder any day . The finder does have a flasher on it but I would buy the straight flasher over it any day.

[RJ]

I bought the elite 4x at the beginning of last season and got it over a marcum or vex just because I can use for back lakes. I fished with a buddy late last year with a flasher and I would buy the flasher over a finder any day . The finder does have a flasher on it but I would buy the straight flasher over it any day.

No better answer for your question than a guy who has done it.

RJ

[smitty55]

I bought the elite 4x at the beginning of last season and got it over a marcum or vex just because I can use for back lakes. I fished with a buddy late last year with a flasher and I would buy the flasher over a finder any day . The finder does have a flasher on it but I would buy the straight flasher over it any day.

Jason like you I also bought mine so I could put it on my Sportspal in the summer. I'm curious if you used the amplitude bar last year when you compared it beside a flasher? I read a post where this guy had a 4x beside some other guys with finders, not flashers, and he was always spotting fish before them using the amp bar.

I'm not knocking flashers at all, I still have an old Lowrance Eagle Silent Sixty-Two with dual depth ranges. It came with a suction cup mount for the summer. The technology is not new at all. But they are limited in what they can offer. Here's a short list of the options that come with the 4x, starting with dual beam frequencies. It has noise reduction so you can use it around other units, surface clarity, ice mode, depth settings, split flasher mode with a graph, split zoom mode for the graph so you can zoom in on the bottom, different sensitivities and color choices, various ping speeds, etc. so you can tweak it to what you want.... Now, I would rather have an Elite4 or 5 that comes with gps and apps, but the deal was good.

Marko you can check out reviews for the Elite5, same unit, bigger screen. There are also some good ice fishing forums out there, like iceshanty.com.

Any way you go, it will help your fishing for sure, even if it's mostly used for as a depth sounder, as most sonar is anyway. Finding structure/depth is quite often the start of fishing. Marking fish is bonus, then you can refine techniques. Then again, before sonar was used much by most ice fishermen, there were still lots of fish being caught. Look at shoreline structure. Drill a hole, check the depth with a sinker. Walk back till the sinker hits the surface. Works every time, no batteries required lol.

Here's hoping this good cold snap fixes up the poor slush conditions pretty well everywhere it seems. Right now it's not good for any kind of travel, let alone trying to drag a shack out.

Cheers folks... Happy new year of fishing

[i got worms]

They're still mass producing flashers for a reason, because they are the shizzle on the izzle my nizzle!